When life gives you lemons, dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Over the weekend, NYU professor Yvonne Latty and her students were allegedly racially profiled and harassed at a presidential campaign event in New Hampshire for Sen. Marco Rubio.
Latty and her graduate students were in the state covering Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns for the school’s blog, The New Hampshire Chronicles.
Rubio’s rally Sunday in the town of Bedford was one of their last stops before returning to New York. According to Wired, “Ugonma Ubani-Ebere and Taisha Henry arrived at the event as part of a group of 16 classmates. They say that when they tried to set up their cameras, a Rubio staffer told them to put their cameras away because they lacked media credentials.”
Through a series of tweets Latty discussed the strangeness they encountered:
Awful experience at townhall for #Rubio my two #black @nyu_journalism students were racially profiled #newhampshireprimary
— yvonnelatty (@yvonnelatty) February 7, 2016
1) there were only 3 blacks including me and #nyu_journalism students among hundreds of white people at #Rubio townhall. Hassles began fast.
— yvonnelatty (@yvonnelatty) February 7, 2016
2)white and black @nyu_journalism students had cameras only blacks were repeatedly told to put away. It was relentless. #Rubio townhall
— yvonnelatty (@yvonnelatty) February 7, 2016
3)black students said they would but got upset when white students standing next to them with cameras were told nothing. @nyu_journalism
— yvonnelatty (@yvonnelatty) February 7, 2016
4) black students realized what was going on and began to cry. I confronted head guy but damage was done. @nyu_journalism
— yvonnelatty (@yvonnelatty) February 7, 2016
I also felt racially profiled. They did not want to let me into the #rubio event even when I was given a press pass. @nyu_journalism
— yvonnelatty (@yvonnelatty) February 7, 2016
Latty said Rubio’s staffer watched the two female students like a hawk. Then a second staffer came to reinforce what the first staffer said.
The other NYU grad students, who happened to be white, were not spoken to or asked not to film. Wired spoke to Michael Zona, Rubio’s New Hampshire communications director. He stated:
“We reserve space for those who have RSVPed, and other than that, it’s first come first served.”
Wired also pressed Zona about the second staffer and Zona replied, “I would have to gather more information about the situation.”
The Rubio campaign is trying to downplay the racial undertones of the situation, but the damage has been done. The young women were upset and were crying after being forced out. When the tears came, Rubio staffers brought the two women back into the event, but it was too late.
Incidents like this are common place at Republican campaign events, which only reinforces their xenophobic and bigoted rhetoric.
